BIRMINGHAM - Cory Boyd recalls fondly how he and his teammates reacted when head coach Steve Spurrier informed them for the first time that USC's primary objective in 2007 was winning the SEC Championship.

"We celebrated like little schoolgirls," Boyd exclaimed. "We finally felt our coach really believes in us and that we can get the job done. Coach Spurrier doesn't say much about winning games. He wants us to take it one game at a time. For him to say that, it was a shocker. We thought, yeah, our coach believes in us."

Boyd, who joined the Gamecock program in 2003 and played two seasons before a suspension wiped out the 2005 season, says he waited a long time to hear the magic words from Spurrier.